Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the solopreneur Sisterhood podcast. A podcast designed to help heart centered service providers like you build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to you. I'm your host, Becky McCleary and I am so grateful that you are here.
So on today's episode, I am excited to introduce you to our guest, Audrey Worm. Audrey is a podcast manager and mentor specializing in helping women pivot from burnout to building thriving podcast management businesses. With years of experience in the industry, she's passionate about empowering women to transition from virtual assistants or online business management to sustainable careers as podcast managers. Through her signature 16 week one on one mentorship program, she has guided countless women to gain confidence, master the necessary tech and client management skills, and sign high value clients, all while achieving the work life balance they crave. As a mom and business owner, Audrey understands the unique challenges of juggling career and family. Her coaching style is supportive, insightful and results driven, focusing on providing personalized strategies to help her clients build successful businesses that align with their values. In addition to her one on one mentorship, she offers intensives and group programs to support women at every stage of their podcast management journey. Known for her professional yet casual tone, Audrey is committed to creating a positive impact and nurturing her community. She's not just building businesses, she's helping women design lives that allow them to thrive at work and home.
Well, welcome Audrey. I am so excited to learn from you today and I'm so grateful that you are here with us. Before we get started, I would love to just learn more about you. So can you tell us a little bit about your story, what you do and how you found your way to this work?
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Sure. So I am originally from Pennsylvania in the states and long story short, I was a professional drag racer before COVID and before having my son. So as it, I like to say it's the equivalent of like the NFL for drag racing. Like it was the professional level. So we were technically professional athlete, had to have social media presence and get sponsorship acquisition and all the things.
So I was very familiar with social media management. I had to manage my own, I was very familiar with sponsorships and marketing and all the things that come with that. And after I, well Covid hit and after I had my son, I wanted to be able to work at home with him.
My goal is to be a stay at home or a work from home mom and homeschool him. So I wanted to start my own business to lay the foundation of being able to do that for Our future for our family. And so I started out as a general admin VA and social media manager and I loved it. I loved working with the clients and working on their socials, but it wasn't totally filling my cup. So then I made the pivot to podcast management and that's where I am today.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Amazing. I love that. And I was just thinking at the beginning of your story, I'm like, I didn't know that.
So very cool.
And I love how you were able to take some of your experience and get started in VA work. And I wonder if you could tell us more about how you narrowed your focus to podcast management.
What kind of led you to making that change?
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah, so like I said, I was doing social media management and doing VA work, just general admin va and I was literally working seven to nine hour days. I was getting burnt out, I was tired. I loved my clients, but they weren't all necessarily aligned clients. I was just taking on anybody that was paying the bills. And I had always loved listening to podcasts ever since I was in high school. I've been listening to podcasts for, I don't know, like 15, almost 18 years now, probably so, like since the beginning of podcasting, probably.
And I remember being in high school and listening to Crime Junkie True Crime. That was my very first, very first situation of listening to podcasts. And I just fell in love and never stopped listening since. And now obviously I still listen to that one. But my pool of podcasts that I listened to has changed since becoming an entrepreneur and a mom and wanting to homeschool. So now I listen to more of those. But I just love what podcasting can do. I love that you can learn from it while also being on the go.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, I'm originally from Pennsylvania, but I have now moved to Ontario, Canada with my husband, where he is from. And so I'm not near any of my family. So I drive frequently down to the states to go and visit family and I always have a podcast on. I always am listening to something on the go. So I was just like, how can I pivot and make a career out of something revolving podcast? Because I love them so much and I'm already listening to them and so I was googling work from home, podcast jobs and stuff like that and fell down the rabbit hole of podcast management. And I have never looked back.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: That is amazing. I love that and I love how there was something within you that realized like one, what I'm doing right now is probably not sustainable or what I want to be doing. And I've been there, too. You know, at first, it's just any client you can get is a win. And then before you know it, you're like, wait a second, I am working way too much, and I don't love this. And I think that is kind of this tricky path that we have to take as business owners because we have to find that balance between, yes, we need to bring in clients, so that way we actually have a business. But also realizing we created this business because of certain lifestyle we wanted to have. And for most of us, I think that's probably not working all the time or doing work that we don't love.
And so it can be kind of challenging to figure out. Well, now I've had some success, but that's still not exactly what I want. So it can be hard to figure out what we do want. So I love how you took something that you already enjoyed in life and thought, okay, well, what can I do with that? I think a lot of us tend to hold ourselves back and think, oh, well, I don't have any experience with that. There's no way that I could. Could do that. So I'm wondering for you, since you didn't have experience with podcast management, what. What were some of your first steps to make that transition, to learn the skills that you needed to.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah, so I am not super techie. Like I said, my only experience with podcasts was just listening to them. I didn't know how to edit audio or video. I didn't know how to do any of that. I knew how reels and, like, cool snippets from a show, but that was about it.
So I went down the rabbit hole. I learned from other podcast managers and other friends, and I asked a lot of questions, and it was a lot of trial and error. Excuse me. And I.
It kind of took a while. It took me probably a couple months to work my VA job and kind of learn this on the side before I was comfortable enough to switch and make the pivot and offer those services publicly and call myself a podcast manager.
But, yeah, just very much trial and error and youtubing and googling and trying to just consume. I think I did some udemy courses, like, trying to just consume all the information that I could and watching a lot of podcasts and a lot of YouTubes on how to do podcast management.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: I love that. And I really.
It's so true. Like, we live in kind of this amazing time where you can learn so much online. Uh, you know, I Mean, it used to be not that long ago that, you know, if you didn't go to school for something, then, you know, that was kind of off limits to you. But now there are just so many things that we can learn along the way. Uh, you know, and I say to my kids, too, like, there are so many things that I do on a daily basis that the technology just didn't exist when I was their age, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.
But I've learned as we've gone.
So one thing that you brought up in that was feeling confident, calling yourself a podcast manager. And I will say, I know that's something that a lot of business owners struggle with.
I've seen it a lot with VAs, probably because I've worked with a lot of VAs, is they're comfortable with that because they can do a number of tasks, but then when it comes to specializing in something, they struggle to call themselves, whatever that is. So were there certain steps you took to kind of build up your confidence with being a podcast manager? Were there maybe some trial clients or maybe some. Some offers that you put out there to kind of get started with that?
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So I. I feel like everyone at one point struggles. Struggles with imposter syndrome. I do it. I feel like even if you're a millionaire, you still struggle with imposter syndrome sometimes. Like, everybody has to just make that mindset shift and just be comfortable with who you are, and you may not be perfect. There was some clients in the beginning that I still messed up their show, or I didn't edit something out that they want edited, or there was some mistakes along the way. Like I said, lots of trial and error. But I worked with a business coach, and we worked on Mindset and just kind of making that shift and getting more comfortable and just more confident and knowing that not everything you do is going to be perfect, but just having the confidence to put yourself out there. And then I did some trial clients. I worked with a couple for testimonials. I did some beta pricing, which my prices were way lower when I started. They have increased since I started a couple years ago with podcast management.
But, yeah, just getting super comfortable with myself and practicing and learning more skills, and I still Google and learn something about podcast management probably on a weekly basis, and then I just can become more confident, increase my prices as I go and learn things along the way, because we're never not learning something.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: I love that there were so many great pieces of advice in there. So one thing is what I have. I really believe the difference between those who succeed and those who don't, when it comes to having your own business is this idea, like, I can figure this out, I will keep learning, I will keep doing what I need to do to keep moving forward. So this first step might not go exactly how I want it to, but I can figure it out from there. I think that's so essential in anything we want to create in our business.
And also just like real transparency with clients. So when we're just starting out on something new that we're doing, you know, if you do have some clients where you're doing an exchange for a testimonial, that's a win on both sides. And as long as they know, like, hey, this is new for me, I'm trying this out, I'm going to give you my best work. But it is also the first time I'm doing this for a client. So, you know, so my best is, is at that level. And then as you go along, you know, doing that beta pricing, so people know like, hey, I'm getting a great deal on this. And also I'm still in the early stages of learning this.
And then as you go further along, increasing your prices. And I love how you did that because that's something that I work with a lot of clients on. It's like, okay, you have more experience now, so you need to be charging a higher price because you offer more value to your clients. So, yeah, love everything.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: I got so much, I got so much feedback from those first testimonial clients, from those beta clients, because they knew that I was new. They knew that I necessarily wasn't the top person. But they weren't looking for a professional agency or professional person to edit their podcast because they couldn't afford professional at the time. They could just afford. It was maybe a hobby show or they were a small business, so they liked the beta pricing. And then we've since continued to work together and they, their trust in me built, so I was able to raise those prices and not have any objections. My trust in myself built. My love for their show has grown and now I love the shows I'm producing and you just kind of learn who your ideal clients really are, what shows really light you up, who you like to work with. So it's just a win win all the way around. And like you said, raising your prices, that was another reason why I made the pivot. I knew working general Admin VA wasn't necessarily going to make the monthly income that I wanted to make the whole rest of this online journey. I knew that pivoting to something more kind of niche down and becoming an expert in something, I was going to be able to charge higher price packages. So that was another reason for the pivot as well.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Yes, I love that. So if someone is listening and they are thinking about pivoting or maybe narrowing down their focus, are there some recommendations you have for them on taking those steps?
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Yeah. So I would say just start, just make the pivot. And you might be scared, you might be a little nervous. But like I said, I have never looked back.
And I actually created a mentorship for women, NVAs and online business managers who want to make the pivot because I didn't want them to have to do the trial and error and go down the YouTube and podcast rabbit hole of trying to figure out how to do these skills and client acquisitions and mindset and all the things that I went through. So I compiled a 16 week mentorship to help other women make that transition and pivot faster.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: That's amazing. So I love how you learned it for yourself and now you're helping make it easier for others. So one thing that you said earlier that has been true for me, and I stress this to clients too, that when you're in that period where maybe you have a successful business but you're wanting to pivot directions, there might be a time where you have to do a little more work in order to make that transition, because you're having to take time to learn whatever it is that you're wanting to do or to get that set up so that people even know that's available and you're having to fulfill the client work you're currently doing. So what I like to think of that is just, okay, this is just a season that I'm in and also kind of give myself some deadlines. Like, you know, I want to be really making a switch by this date. So that way I know that it's not going to be a long term period where I'm feeling like I'm doing way too much.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: So.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: And then the other thing.
So you talked about your program that you have.
But for those who are thinking about possibly doing podcast management, where do you recommend they begin if they're thinking like, I'm not sure if I would even like that or not. I think that's one of the fears people have when it comes to pivoting is I haven't done it yet, so I don't know if I really want to do this or not. So do you have recommendations for them?
[00:16:07] Speaker B: I would suggest listen to some podcasts, decide if that is something you actually want to make a career out of. And like I said, like, if you don't like to listen to podcasts or know what podcasts are capable of doing and the power that they hold and the messages that you can share, you probably won't enjoy being a podcast manager because there's a lot of listening to podcasts in your work. So I would definitely start there and just find some podcast management friends on Facebook or connect in virtual assistant and OBM and podcast management communities on Facebook or on Instagram, find some, have some conversations, ask them what their day to day looks like. That's why part of my content strategy on Instagram is to do kind of behind the scenes, a day in the life content of balancing podcast management work with having a two and a half very busy two and a half year old because it has changed, my workflow has changed, my lifestyle has changed. I Now probably worked 20 hours a week compared to 7 to 9 hour days Monday through Friday. And so I like to share that because it's providing and sharing what's possible and what my day looks like behind the scenes of being a podcast manager and kind of what tasks I do for my clients.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: I love that and I really love the behind the scenes option that you're offering people because I think that would help a lot as far as like I don't even know what all is involved with podcast management and there are probably a lot of different moving pieces, so that's incredibly valuable. So for anyone listening who's thinking, I want to watch that. We will have Audrey's links in the show notes for this episode so you can follow her on Instagram and her other platforms. So I want to be really mindful of everyone's time. So if listeners are thinking, okay, I want to learn more from Audrey or I want to check out that course, can you tell us more about how people can connect with you?
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Sure. So I am on Instagram @AudreyWormCoaching and like I said, I also have a 16 week one on one mentorship and it goes through absolutely everything we go through mindset and skills and editing and everything needed to make the pivot as well as where to find ideal podcast management clients and client acquisition strategies and onboarding and workflows and offboarding and it's all one on one, personalized, customized to the person wanting to make the pivot into podcast management, how many hours and what they want to offer as a podcast manager and they can find that I talk a lot about it on my Instagram as well as on Facebook. I have a pivot to Podcast management community Facebook group where I go in and do some trainings and behind the scenes stuff and talk about the mentorship as well.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Amazing. Well, thank you so much. And again for our listeners, we will have links to everything in the show notes for this episode to be make it easy for you to find and connect with Audrey, but I want to thank you so much, Audrey. It has been wonderful talking with you today and learning from you and I just love hearing more about your story and how you found your way into work that you really love and a schedule that really works for your family. So thank you so much for being here today.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Yes, thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to connect with your listeners.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: Thank you so much for joining us and listening to the solopreneur Sisterhood podcast. I hope this episode has offered you some encouragement, some insight and some new ideas to support you in building a business that works for you. Remember that our world needs you, your gifts, your vision and your work. And I'm cheering you on as you bring your vision to life and build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to.
